Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dual-bearing reel equipped with a brake unit for braking a spool that is rotatable about a spool shaft with respect to a reel body of the dual-bearing reel.
Background Information
In general, conventional dual-bearing reels, especially, bait casting reels capable of releasing a fishing line in casting, are equipped with a brake unit for braking a spool. With this configuration, backlash can be prevented when casting.
A type of brake unit has been known that includes two regulators, i.e., a first regulator and a second regulator, in order to regulate a brake force as minutely as possible (see e.g., Japan Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2007-135417).
Conventional brake units are configured to brake the spool in an electrically controllable manner. These conventional brake units include a shaft support portion fixed to the reel body, a circuit board fixed to the inner surface of the shaft support portion, a brake portion including a magnet and a plurality of coils, a first regulator for regulating a brake force of the brake portion, and a second regulator. One end of a spool shaft is rotatably supported by the shaft support portion through a bearing. The magnet is mounted so as to be unitarily rotatable with the spool. The plurality of coils is mounted to the circuit board and is disposed on the outer peripheral side of the magnet in tubular arrangement. Each of the first and second regulators is rotatably mounted to the outer surface of the shaft support portion. Each of the first and second regulators has a disc shape and has a knob part protruding from the circular surface thereof along the diameter of the circular surface.
The first regulator sets a brake mode, whereas the second regulator regulates the magnitude of brake force in the set brake mode. The first regulator is covered with a cover portion that is openable and closable. Thus, the operation of the first regulator is disabled when the cover portion is closed. The second regulator is exposed through an opening bored in the cover portion. Thus, the operation of the second regulator is always freely enabled for regulating the magnitude of brake force. With this configuration, the brake mode is unlikely to be changed by an erroneous operation of the first regulator.